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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> >What's the time frame? Were 'muskets' even invented yet when the story was 
>  
> set?

Just as the English palace guards are called Grendadiers although they don't 
primarily use grenades, and some modern mechanized brigades are called 
'lancers' although they don't use lances,   like that in 1622 a specialized 
corps was 
formed as the kings bodyguard and called 'Les Mousquetaires du Roi'.  They 
were originally armed with muskets, but the 17th century flintlocks were 8' 
long 
and weighed 20 lbs.  When the corps was later mounted, the firearms were 
dropped but not the name.

Dumas' story begins in 1625.  Firearms had been in use for more than two 
centuries by then.

More of a puzzle perhaps than the fact you had swordsmen called musketeers is 
that the title of the tome says it is about "three" musketeers when actually 
there were four.   </HTML>